Dedicated to interviewing leading edge experts, practitioners in their field, and people who are living examples of sustainability. Covers environmental subject matter that is not readily discussed in depth in mainstream media.

Rogan Boyle and Simon Oosterman on #OccupyWallSt and Occupy Auckland

Rogan, who has just resigned his job to be at Aotea Square full-time, having been part of the Occupy Auckland organizing team from the start and Simon, an activist at heart has also just taken extended leave from his job at a union to help out.

Two very articulate occupiers share what is playing out within the Occupy Auckland encampment and what their aspirations are.

From:

What are occupiers unifying around?

What is the greatest challenge?

Where they get their support from?

What do they want to see happen?

Bringing in food, sharing ...

How NZ can play its part in the transformation of the old paradigm into a conscious caring cohesive, synergistic, society?

Another big question: When their time is up at Aotea Square, are they going to decamp in agreement and peacefully or are the authorities going to have to push the issue?

New Zealanders are very complacent and have had it exceptionally easy in the global scheme of things, with good Government safety nets, welfare, no food shortages, no war etc.

Yet, with $300 million weekly in overseas loans keeping us docile, we are now passing the 18 billion dollar threshold in just over 2 and a half years of loans and from unknown entities overseas, so the NZ Government is certainly leaving the younger generation a huge amount of debt … how should New Zealanders react to this?

Especially as debt is one of the greatest issues.

There are many things thing effecting the hearts and minds of everyone these days.

Hine Ransfield and Lisa Er on #OccupyWallSt and Occupy Auckland

Hine Ransfield from Occupy Auckland, social networker and Lisa Er, an ASB Auckland business woman of the year and Founder of the Awareness Party, have a conversation on Occupy Wall St to Occupy Auckland.

Is it a revolt, an uprising, an insurrection, a rebellion, or a revolution?

YES! all of these, by the 99% who see global control firmly in the hands of the 1%. Yet we trust the outcome will be conscious, peaceful and by a dynamic successful process.

Touch typing is mightier than the truncheon! And it can be.

Americans presently occupying Wall St and countrywide financial centers need our principled support. As New Zealand is the first major country to see tomorrow first, can we be a moral template for a peaceful resolve towards cleansing a global economic system based on debt, exclusiveness and adversity.

Here in NZ, many say that mainstream media is in the camp of the status quo, as it's a media that keeps us content, distracted, compliant and titillated. But in reality it is also a media of censorship by omission. For though Wall St has been occupied for a month, you will notice mainstream NZ media by not covering this, are either very conservative or compliant.

Yet, NZ can be the seedbed for a new consciousness. We are a stable country, with no war or starving, fairly well educated and connected by the web.

We also come from a deep knowingness of welfare and social safety nets, as well as once being a country based on numerous nationwide co-operatives, especially in the rural sector, trust banks, mutual insurance societies, building societies and liquor trusts. This being prior to private capital, in the mid 1980s early 90's mostly from offshore, cleverly circumventing these altruistic models, and today very little cash flows out to the community, but instead disappears overseas as profits.

Occupy Wall St is a great awakening of the West that if we are to thrive as a cohesive cooperative and awakened humanity, we have to do away with the banking system that has taken us to the abyss of uncertainty.

What is our next strategic move that will shift the balance back into the hands of the 99% that can for the first time evolve a planet of peace and security? A system that is holistic, inclusive, follows the precautionary principle and has a duty of care?

We are paying governments to find solutions, but they are not coming up with any, hence this disciplined global protest, because the Governments are at the behest of the money that continuously flows on upwards to banking interests. So much so, that we will never be told who we in NZ get our overseas loans from and what the conditions are?

Listen to two aware and active women share with me there concerns and aspirations about the Occupation that is presently continuing at Aotea Square here in Auckland today.

Jeanette Fitzsimons ~ Former Co-Leader NZ Green Political Party

Nobody in NZ is as eloquent and as clear in explaining ecological concerns as Jeanette Fitzsimons. I challenge any person in this country to explain off the cuff what is happening environmentally here in NZ … anyone! And to do it in such a way that you can feel her humanity in the timbre of her voice.

New Zealand's natural environment and resources are under assault from all quarters!

Jeanette gives an overview of what is happening, as more coal mines are planned with the long term view of every car to be diesel driven - from the extraction of coal.

Covering the increasing new methods of coal extraction to hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' in Taranaki, we realize we are dealing with in Jeanettes words, a 'hydra' that continues to come up somewhere else.

Instead of phasing out coal mining the National lead Govt here is driving the hectic onslaught to extract more coal, see Denniston in the South Island, when we need to extricate ourselves out of the dinosaur age.

The conversation and planning needs us to invest in smart technologies and innovation (even retrofitting new 21st century synergistic turbines at the bottom of all the nearly 50 dams we have up and down our country) and keep the subject of 'energy' at the forefront of public awareness.

As for the ETS, the Emissions Trading Scheme, that it is basically a scam and that it has to be thought through. Who are the ones who benefit from all this money going offshore?

What about giant public forestry plantations that are superannuation funds for New Zealanders? There is one here at Kaingaroa, it's owned by Harvard University's endowment fund. So what about the NZ public, why are 'we' out of the loop?

So many issues … To not to be seen as too radical, Jeanette goes on to offer a strategic plan that allows us to continue mining the coal mines we have already open BUT over 20 years phase them out as they end their productive life, at the same time people in the industry keep their jobs but you don't employ any more new workers as you retire them off through natural attrition. Strategic thinking at its best as it puts the dinosaur fossil fuel industry to bed in an appropriate manner.

This is a superb clarification of the state of all the fossil fuel challenges in NZ that needs to be anchored and debated in the public consciousness.

Bryan Innes ~ Expanding the Ecological Paradigm

Bryan Innes and his partner Joanna Pearsall were the initiators of NZ's first EcoShow, and to this day continue their interests in the ecological and sustainability realm.

Now based in Turangi at the base of lake Taupo, they work the land at 'Awhi' Farm - the Maori word for embrace, which they are turning into a living example of sustainability and earth systems.

From working with soil, compost and mulch to tasting the sweetness of eating their own home grown organic food, they are truly living in harmony with the land.

Bryan is also experimenting with building homes with local earth materials that are cheap and affordable. Building one's own earth house is far cheaper than the mainstream models; these houses are insulated and warm, plus wooden cordwood housing actually breathes, and is ideal for asthmatics and those with certain allergies.

Bryan is also importing sustainable tools, such as scythes that are as easy and efficient as a petrol or electric weed eater, and better for you ergonomically, plus other tools made of bronze, with quality as good as steel, as bronze does not rust.

Also, following the Precautionary Principle, he is readying their lifestyle for energy decline as the global economic collapse continues to unravel.

Bryan is currently engaging Bernard Lietaer, the Belgian who was the architect of the Euro, who has shifted his allegiance to localized currencies, recognizing that the small micro-monetary systems have far more merit if we are to find a way forward. One example of this is the JAK interest free bank in Sweden.

Bryan is a gentle steadfast soul who is deeply confident about facing the future with our untapped potential for innovation and harmonious community.